facebook pixel
Skip to Main Content
Boston University School of Law

  • Academics
  • Admissions & Aid
  • Faculty & Research
Search
  • Current Students
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Alumni
  • Employers
  • Journalists
Search
  • Academics
    • Academic Enrichment Program
    • Find Degrees and Programs
    • Explore Your Options
    • Study Abroad
    • Academic Calendar
  • Admissions & Aid
    • JD Admissions
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Tuition & Fees
    • Financial Aid
    • Visits & Tours
  • Faculty & Research
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Activities & Engagements
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Faculty Resources
  • Experiential Learning
    • Clinics & Practicums
    • Externship Programs
    • Simulation Courses
    • Law Journals
    • Moot Court
  • Careers & Professional Development
    • Judicial Clerkship Program
    • Career Advising for Graduate Students
    • Employment Statistics
    • Legal Career Paths
    • Public Service Programs
  • Student Life
    • Law Student Well-Being
    • Law Student Organizations
    • Boston Legal Landscape
  • Law Libraries
    • About the Libraries
    • A-Z Database List
    • Institutional Repository
  • About BU Law
    • Offices & Services
    • Meet the Dean
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
    • Visit Campus
  • News & Stories
    • All Stories
    • BU Law in the Media
    • BU Law News
    • Collections
    • Past Issues of The Record

Want to Support BU Law?Learn how you can give back


Latest Stories From The Record

Research

Alumni Giving Supports Students’ In-Depth Research with BU Law Faculty

Read more
Healthcare

From the ICU to BU Law

Read more
LLM in American Law

Returning to Where It All Began

Read more
Student Life

Involved and Uplifted

Read more
The Record
News & Stories from BU Law
  • Issues
  • All Stories

Inspired Intersections

On writing When God Isn’t Green.

By Professor of Law Jay Wexler

Jay Wexler HWhen God Isn’t Green discusses what happens when religious practices end up harming the environment. Should the government regulate those religious practices the same way it would regulate any other source of environmental harm? Should it ignore the environmental impact of those practices in the name of religious freedom? Or should it do something in between?

To investigate those questions, I traveled around the world to try to understand how various societies have dealt with such problems. Among other trips, I went to Mumbai to watch devout Hindus immerse immense idols of the elephant god Ganesh into the sea and leave them there, visited Singapore and Hong Kong to witness Taoists burning joss paper to appease so-called “Hungry Ghosts,” and traveled to the northernmost city in the United States to participate in Nalukataq, a Native Alaskan whaling celebration.

The idea for the book was a direct result of my time at BU Law. For over 15 years, I have been teaching Environmental Law and a seminar on law and religion. This might seem like an odd combination of courses for one faculty member to teach, and in some ways it is. But I have long been fascinated by both subjects, so for me, it has always been a terrific assignment. Over the years, I have come to see a number of ways in which the subjects intersect. Whenever I was teaching my religion course and an environmental issue came up, I made a mental note of it. I did the same whenever an issue related to religion arose while I was teaching environmental law. Some of these issues ended up as chapters in When God Isn’t Green.

WexlerBook-smallInitially, my intention was to write a book about just one controversy—whether the federal government should allow Native Americans to possess the feathers of bald and golden eagles for their religious rituals. Many Native Americans believe that eagles are sacred and use their feathers and other parts in their ceremonies, but the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 makes it generally illegal for anyone in the United States to so much as possess a single feather. To accommodate the beliefs of Native Americans, the Fish and Wildlife Service runs a macabre operation known as the National Eagle Repository, which collects dead eagles and then sends their parts first-come, first-served, to tribal members who apply for them. The repository is hardly an ideal solution, as it is a rare religious believer who thrills at receiving their ritual objects in the mail from the government.

Although I spent at least a year trying to convince editors to let me write a book about eagles (it would have been called Illegal Eagles and would have sported a discombobulated bald eagle on the cover), I completely struck out. I remember the precise moment when the idea for the eagle book transformed into what would become When God Isn’t Green. I was talking with my longtime editor at Beacon Press about eagles for the umpteenth time when she asked me this simple question: “Is this eagle issue perhaps a subset of something larger?”

In frustration, I closed my eyes and thought about all of the issues I had noted over the years. “Maybe something about how religious practices generally impacts the environment around the world?” I offered. When I opened my eyes, my editor had a huge smile across her face. “Now that is interesting,” she said. The contract was signed a month later.

This feature originally appeared in The Record, BU Law’s alumni magazine. Read the full issue here.

Related News

  • When God Isn’t Green
  • Discovering Environmental Justice
  • BU Law Holds Symposium to Celebrate Jay Wexler’s Latest Book

Explore Related Topics:

  • Books
  • Environmental Law
  • Research
  • The Record F17
  • Share this story

Share

Inspired Intersections

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Issues
  • All Stories
  • About & Contact

More about School of Law

Also See

  • ABA Required Disclosures
  • Licensing Disclosures
  • Statement of Nondiscrimination

Contact Us

  • JD Admissions
  • LLM & Graduate Admissions
  • Offices & Services
  • Faculty & Staff Directory
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
© 2025 Boston University. All rights reserved. www.bu.edu
  • Current Students
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Alumni
  • Employers
  • Journalists
Search
Boston University

Boston University School of Law
765 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

  • © Boston University
  • Privacy Statement
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Boston University Masterplate